Monday, 13 May 2013

Wake up with a Fat Black!

I guess the first thing I should do
is explain what a fat black is. A fat black is either a long black or espresso
coffee with butter and/or coconut oil in it. It is also known as bulletproof
coffee.

I think most people's reaction to the
notion of putting butter in coffee is; why? It doesn't seem like the sort of
combination that would excite the taste-buds, but you would be surprised at how
good it is. But it is not just about the flavour, the fat black has some
amazing health benefits too.

Fat blacks are great for your brain!

There are two ways that brain cells
are energised. The first is to "burn" glucose, This is the most
common way in our society as we have such a sugar and carbohydrate based diet.
Glucose easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and when blood sugars are high
it is the simplest way for cells to become energised. The second way brain
cells are energised is by a process called ketosis. Ketosis tends to get a bit
of a bad wrap, but let me explain why it is great for your brain. There is a
process called myelination, which is where a fatty coating is created around
brain and nerve cells. This coating allows for better communication between
cells and is vital for complex brain function. Myelination is obviously
supercharged when you are a kid and particularly in your frontal lobe (learning
centre) during teen years. But it can continue through out your life. This
myelination process ONLY occurs under ketosis! Ketosis will only occur if
insulin is low.

Fat blacks super-drive ketosis in the
brain. The caffeine picks up the good fats out of the butter and coconut oil,
drags the across the blood-brain barrier and force feeds them to the brain
cells. Instant myelination! This helps you to comprehend things better,
increases cognition, increases coordination, reaction times, problem solving
and enhances feelings of well being. Lack of myelination can cause diseases
like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ADD/ADHD, epilepsy and
autism spectrum disorders. Fat Black = Brain Food!

Fat blacks are perfect for weight
optimisation.

If you are overweight, kick starting
this ketosis thing trains your body into using its excessive fats stores as
fuel. This occurs through helping to resensitise cells to leptin and through
encouraging cells to use fats as an energy source without converting them into
glucose first. This means efficient fat burning without over stimulating your
thyroid and increasing your stress levels.

Fat Blacks make you go faster and
longer!

When you train both your brain and
your other cells to work under fat-burning ketosis, it increases your VO2 max!
You cells actually use up less oxygen and produce greater output. It also means
not hitting the wall, your body is attuned to using its fat stores as fuel
straight away. You almost never run out of energy as you carry a few kilos, you
glycogen stores are a maximum of about 500gms. Not only can this improve
sporting performance, but also increases your life span by reducing the amount
of oxidative stress within your body's cells. (Leptin for Laymen 3, ROS)

Fat Blacks make you sexy!

Ok, maybe that is a little bit of a
stretch, but they do really help to balance out your sex hormones. You see all
of your steriodal hormones, including your sex hormones are made of something
called pregnenolone. When you have a fat black, which contains a lot of the
ingredients to make pregnenolone, it steers it towards making more of the the
good stuff, sex hormones. In the morning if you introduce sweet stuff, which
includes milky coffee without sugar (milk contains lactose), you steer your
hormones towards making cortisol (stress hormone) and insulin. It steals the
building blocks from your sex hormones which should be peaking at that time of
the day. (This is covered in the Leptin for Laymen 4 video). Having a fat black
leaves pregnenolone free to become awesome sex hormones. This in turn also
increases your life expectancy.

But I don't drink/like coffee.

Try it with tea!

Personally, I wouldn't start my day
any other way. In my day to day life, I have noticed an increase in being able
to grasp complex concepts, I have loads more energy and now run all obstacle
races with only fat blacks in my stomach and still have plenty of energy at the
end.